BC falls short in Western State Bowl

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The Bakersfield College football team lost to Long Beach City College 47-41 in the Western State Bowl game on Nov.19.

Cesar De Leon started at quarterback for the Renegades and he went 25-for-43 passing with 345 yards, three touchdowns and he also threw an interception. BC could not get the running game going against Long Beach, only rushing for 47 yards on 27 attempts, which is good for an average of 1.7 yards per attempt.

Jakell Tomlin led the Renegades in receiving with six receptions for 112 yards and one touchdown reception. Derrick Vickers had 10 receptions for 97 yards and two touchdown receptions. Vickers also returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

“We played well. We gave ourselves a chance to win at the end. Long Beach is an extremely talented team. It was a game that went back and forth. I thought our guys competed extremely hard and they gave it everything they had, Long Beach is very talented, which is evidenced by their record and the fact that they beat Riverside and they’re the only team to do it,” said head coach Jeff Chudy.

The Renegades finished the season 6-5 overall and 2-3 in the National Northern Conference, but they did end their season on a three-game losing streak.

“We played two high quality teams that made the playoffs in Ventura and Long Beach and those guys out executed us. Two of the three games we obviously had a chance to win. The Canyons game we had a chance to win at the end and we didn’t get it done, we just didn’t make enough plays. Too many penalties against Canyons, and we just ran out of gas against Long Beach,” said Chudy.

Even though they finished on a three-game losing streak, Chudy still felt like his team had a good year.

“We played inspired. We did some good things. We gave ourselves a chance to play in November, which we did. We had a chance to play for a conference championship, which we did in November, but we just didn’t get it done,” said Chudy. “We played into November, which we were hoping to do. Our expectations were that we’re going to go out and compete every week and give it our best shot, which I think we did. I think we came out and played well and I think we competed hard. We played 11 games and I think we came out and competed in 11 games. We played with some passion and we gave it our best shot, as witnessed by the Long Beach game. Our guys played until the final play of the game.”

Chudy made sure to emphasize that football is a team sport and that he wasn’t hung up on achievements from individuals.

“You know, this is a team sport and obviously you can go and look at the statistics and we’ll do our All-Conference team and we’ll have guys that will get recognition. I’m more focused in on what we did as a team and I was proud of the way our guys competed and played until the end,” said Chudy.

Chudy made it clear that there’s still plenty of time until next season and that he’s not exactly focused on that right now.

“We got an offseason to enjoy the holidays. We’ll start cranking it up this spring. We’ll take it one step at a time and this kind of goes in phases.

“Right now, it’s a time for us to focus in on finals and school and get our stuff taken care of academically. It’s time to spend time with our families and enjoy the holidays, and we’ll come back after the new year and we’ll start worrying about next year then,” said Chudy.